People that are high when doing the MMPI-2 would likely test as invalid. When you are high, careless mistakes are detected in the test. So it does the prison inmate no good to be high.

Original clinical validation tests on MMPI using prisoners includes making sure they are not high compared to normal people that were already tested by other means and also not high.

A 'happy pill' may make you less critical when answering embedded ethical questions used for the 'L' scale, thus you will likely botch the test with a high 'L' score. The L scale kicks up easily even when you are not trying to fool the test on purpose.

I did the MMPI-2 a while back and my 'L' scale raw score was a '6' (boarderline high).

I did the test again 8 months later on my own and scored and 'L' scale raw score of '7' (too high, invalid)

So last week I did it again, but marking my self 'hard' on the ethics questions. I scored a 'L' scale raw score of '5' (more then I expected, but OK).

I tested a crazy former girlfriend (undiagnosed schizo) she scored an incredibly low 'L' scale raw score of just '2', incredibily honest!! Go figure!! Then she blew the rest of the test:

This is a fully functioning MMPI-2 applet that contains all of the items and has a very detailed report. The report is the real McCoy; it includes all the modern/current scales and categories with broken down scores, as well as the statistical corrections; and even more importantly, the critical items are highlighted and referenced to their respective scales, and the answers are also shown.

The nice thing about this applet is that you can easily change any of the answers and rescore it. The rescored profile will be shown right after the previously scored profile, thus you can tinker and experiment with the item response patterns, to see what happens. This really is as close to the real profile as you can get without a psychologist in the room. The only thing missing are the profile code interpretations, but those are mostly subjective anyway, and so would be worthless.

Keeping in mind they may be subjective, do you know where to find information as to what are the normal ranges?

I know the CIA and NSA use the MMPI-2 test. There is a great interpretation of the MMPI-2 test here: http://falseallegations.com/mmpi-bw.htmLook for the phrase "A T-score of 65 has proven to be the best cutoff for critical items", under "THE ADVENT OF THE MMPI-2" section. This would mean that a T-score over 65 may raise a flag. This is just a general basis, psychologists may have some other method of scoring. I think I read that the lower cutoff for an average T-score is around 35 or so. So 35-65 is like average. One of these scores also tests if you are lying and trying to manipulate the test.

When I took the test at http://geisel.narod.ru/mmpi2.htm, most of my T-scores were between 35-65. I got a score of less than 35 on the Mf Masculine-Femininity"scale, which is expected because I am a your typical masculine "Marlboro Man". lol. I also had T-scores in the high 60s in Es Ego Strength and, Masculine Gender Role, and Hypomania (I expect this because I'm irritable and people can drive me nuts). If you study your scores and the link I provided, it doesn't take a doctor to get the gist of it.

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There is too much drilling down into the minutiae. The huge elephant y'all keep missing is this: the number of nuts screened out by this process isn't worth the number of decent people denied a job because of this testing scheme. If you think its not a large number, you're dead wrong. Add into it the families whose lives are torn apart thanks to OPINIONS taken as facts in a court of law, the time to look into psych testing under serious review. I fear ANY test that operators say, lay people (spelled you and me) can't understand how to score the test. Very wizard-of-oz'ish. I also fear a test that isn't repeatable, or can't have different scorers arrive at the same conclusion. I don't see many recourses built into the process, either, jus a lot of "i-say-so".

Not speaking from personal experience, but I am curious about psychology without suffering any mental illness. This sort of test, because it is generally heralded as the best personality test, got me very interested. And the fact that the general public does not have very easy acess (lest the test be compromised) piqued my interest.

The thing that makes the test so hard to manipulate is that all the questions are standardized not only in the general population, but with populations known to have the given disorders for which the scales will detect. Furthermore, the questions have multiple overlapping validity scales that will show if you're faking, and even how you're trying to fake it.

You basically need two main things, and two side things to be able to know what is going on with the MMPI:

1. A set of all the questions. You can try googling around, and get lucky, but Pearson assessment searches routinely and asks posts to be taken down due to "copyright infringement" as release of the scales could invalidate their test. If you fail the search and are low on time, get one of the early editions of Development and Use of the Mmpi-2 Content Scales by James Butcher. Pearson asked this book to be reissued without the questions for obvious reasons, but if you can find an early edition, the list is in an appendix at the end. Note that the book is otherwise useless and not worth reading, you are just buying the early edition to have the questions.

2. A book explaining how to score it and which scales each questions tips off. Without the questions (and the book in question does *NOT* include them), the book is not useful. I found "MMPI-2: An Interpretive Manual" is EXTREMELY expensive but by far the most useful to explain you ever last question, every last test scale so you know the test as well as its creators. It is EXHAUSTIVE in its descriptions. You need lots of time to go question by question, scale by scale but depending on how much you know about psychology/mental health, it may only take a few weeks to know the test and how it works (for educational purposes, of course).

the reality is that this and other tests are purely subjective, it isnt only the paper test that gives results it is combined with a 1 on 1 with a psychologist and other important data, I am diagnosed with Axis 2 disorders yet if you look at my MMPI-2 there are no indicators at all for any disorder ... so really I dont think there is any real need to spend 2 hrs filling in this test when the subjectivity is so high

Not speaking from personal experience, but I am curious about psychology without suffering any mental illness. This sort of test, because it is generally heralded as the best personality test, got me very interested. And the fact that the general public does not have very easy acess (lest the test be compromised) piqued my interest.

The thing that makes the test so hard to manipulate is that all the questions are standardized not only in the general population, but with populations known to have the given disorders for which the scales will detect. Furthermore, the questions have multiple overlapping validity scales that will show if you're faking, and even how you're trying to fake it.

You basically need two main things, and two side things to be able to know what is going on with the MMPI:

1. A set of all the questions. You can try googling around, and get lucky, but Pearson assessment searches routinely and asks posts to be taken down due to "copyright infringement" as release of the scales could invalidate their test. If you fail the search and are low on time, get one of the early editions of Development and Use of the Mmpi-2 Content Scales by James Butcher. Pearson asked this book to be reissued without the questions for obvious reasons, but if you can find an early edition, the list is in an appendix at the end. Note that the book is otherwise useless and not worth reading, you are just buying the early edition to have the questions.

2. A book explaining how to score it and which scales each questions tips off. Without the questions (and the book in question does *NOT* include them), the book is not useful. I found "MMPI-2: An Interpretive Manual" is EXTREMELY expensive but by far the most useful to explain you ever last question, every last test scale so you know the test as well as its creators. It is EXHAUSTIVE in its descriptions. You need lots of time to go question by question, scale by scale but depending on how much you know about psychology/mental health, it may only take a few weeks to know the test and how it works (for educational purposes, of course).

Good luck and have fun!

Everybody suffers from mental impairment/“illness” of one sort or another; the only question is to what degree and to what extent it affects ones daily life.

Here are a few more tidbits:

If you had only read the previous page (and only the previous page), you would have seen multiple references to the fully functioning MMPI-2 script which contains all the items and has an automatic detailed scoring scheme; all of which can be accessed in less than a few seconds: a total of one mouse click.

If you want to learn more about interpreting the results, then you will have to go to a college or local library and get one of these types of books:MMPI-2: Assessing Personality and Psychopathology by John R. GrahamMMPI-2: A Practitioner's Guide by James Neal ButcherDevelopment and Use of the Mmpi-2 Content Scales (MMPI-2 Monograph Series) by James N. Butcher and John R. GrahamThe MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF: An Interpretive Manual...or similar...there are many more and always new ones coming out too.

The MMPI-2 is used predominantly, and not so much the newer and relatively unproven MMPI-2-RF, in terms of federal security/intelligence agency testing. But don’t forget, most likely there will still be an interview with a psychologist as well, so the 'real you' will still be 'probed' during the one-on-one session with the professional.

The last thing I should mention is that the Russian script with the questions is not perfect. It is meant as an educational tool for those who are curious, and also as a starting point for those who wish to explore the test items. That script does have a few built-in scoring errors (whether intentional or not), a few miss-keyed critical items, and it also does not have all of the possible score sub-categories. But nonetheless, it is an excellent starting point, and a great learning tool!

The MMPI-2 is used predominantly, and not so much the newer and relatively unproven MMPI-2-RF, in terms of federal security/intelligence agency testing. But don’t forget, most likely there will still be an interview with a psychologist as well, so the 'real you' will still be 'probed' during the one-on-one session with the professional.

Exactly. The CIA uses this apparently, see these posts from a CIA applicant here and here. And the NSA also must use this. See this NSA applicant's story Interviewing With An Intelligence Agency, where his psychological exam is on pages 7-12, it looks like he took some version of the MMPI also.

If you had only read the previous page (and only the previous page), you would have seen multiple references to the fully functioning MMPI-2 script which contains all the items and has an automatic detailed scoring scheme; all of which can be accessed in less than a few seconds: a total of one mouse click.

While I did not read the last page (now I did, thanks), I was aware of that applet. You can copy/paste the questions so you have them. But even having the scales from the applet w/ all your results won't be a huge help.

The other concern is that sooner or later the applet will be banned....

The second book I recommended I found to be extremely helpful as it also gives multiple real examples of various scales, combinations etc. It also offers criticisms and examples of when test results where the validity scales are all "OK" still don't reflect the situation, and suggestions for how to view tertiary scales etc.

That's if you really want to get into it though, it is highly involved reading.

If you had only read the previous page (and only the previous page), you would have seen multiple references to the fully functioning MMPI-2 script which contains all the items and has an automatic detailed scoring scheme; all of which can be accessed in less than a few seconds: a total of one mouse click.

While I did not read the last page (now I did, thanks), I was aware of that applet. You can copy/paste the questions so you have them. But even having the scales from the applet w/ all your results won't be a huge help.

The other concern is that sooner or later the applet will be banned....

The second book I recommended I found to be extremely helpful as it also gives multiple real examples of various scales, combinations etc. It also offers criticisms and examples of when test results where the validity scales are all "OK" still don't reflect the situation, and suggestions for how to view tertiary scales etc.

That's if you really want to get into it though, it is highly involved reading.

Getting a copy of the questions is the easy part, getting a copy of the scoring software is basically impossible. That is why the Russian script is so nice, because someone already did most of the tedious work of scoring it. Anyone can save it and edit it very easily now.

There is at least one older free trial software that will give out a basic automatic interpretive report when the general T-scores are inputted. Other than that one, getting a copy of the new and comprehensive Pearson software is basically impossible for non-authorized users.

There were other scripts on US servers that were quickly removed or closed down. But this script is not only a gem, but also Russian. Because it’s Russian, it’s not really going anywhere anytime soon. It might be gone eventually, but in this case, not because someone banned it.

But yes, I know what you meant, and my post was in general, and not directed specifically towards you. Indeed, it is an imperfect instrument that tries to simplify very complex situations.

So it is all quite complicated indeed!

Here is one book you probably did not read, so take a look at it (it is rather interesting and has a whole chapter devoted to the MMPI story):The Cult of Personality: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves by Annie Murphy Paul

I believe the results on those tests are also based on the state of mind one is in while taking the test. Environmental chaos or illness or even over worked changes the state of mind you are in... Maybe that is why some pass it one time and are ruled out another time.